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Dr. Contreras-Vidal, Jose Luis

Wine has been around for millennia. Now engineers and wine experts at the University of Houston are teaming up to better understand how aroma, taste, color and other factors contribute to the experience of drinking wine.

Researchers will collect data on brain waves, motion and galvanic responses as wine experts from the UH Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management conduct a wine tasting at 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, at the Hilton University of Houston.

For 10 weeks over the summer, undergraduate students from across the U.S. became bonafide engineering researchers, working alongside some of UH Cullen College’s brightest minds to solve some of the world’s most pressing technical challenges with science and ingenuity.

Researchers in Houston and elsewhere have shown that robotic systems controlled by the user’s own brain activity can help patients recovering from stroke and other disabling injuries. But the demonstrations have taken place in highly controlled settings, and none of the systems have been approved for use in clinics or patient’s homes.

Contreras-Vidal seeks to answer what happens in the brain as people create and enjoy art

Bringing together scientific research and artistic inquiry is a serious mission for the D.C. Art Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER). It offers monthly conversations about different interdisciplinary topics with invited speakers from all over America.

National Geographic explores the brilliance and creativity of Pablo Picasso in an April article titled “How Picasso’s Journey From Prodigy to Icon Revealed a Genius.” A trailblazing, legendary artist, Picasso revolutionized the art world during his lifetime and continues to awe and inspire to this day.

About 3.5 million people in America are living with some degree of paralysis related to stroke, multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy. Nature magazine this month published an article about scientists developing technological solutions, such as neural prostheses or devices that read brain signals and help restore movement in paralyzed patients.

Researchers Demonstrate Non-Invasive Method Can Help People Re-Learn to Walk

Researchers from the University of Houston have shown for the first time that the use of a brain-computer interface augmented with a virtual walking avatar can control gait, suggesting the protocol may help patients recover the ability to walk after stroke, some spinal cord injuries and certain other gait disabilities.

In honoring scientists who support U.S. troops, the National Science Foundation (NSF) shined a light on UH Cullen College engineer Jose Contreras-Vidal for his work improving prosthetics with brain-computer interfaces.

How does music affect our brains? The latest in a series of collaborations designed to learn what happens in the brain as people create, perform and contemplate art will take place at noon Tuesday, March 1, at the University of Houston’s student center.

Saxophonists Woody Witt and Dan Gelok, both faculty members at the UH Moores School of Music, and drummer Guillermo “Memo” Reza will perform while researchers record their brain activity.